Was Sen. Grassley targeted by Lerner for blocking an Obama political appointee?

Ex-Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner tried to
audit Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley after Grassley blocked President
Obama’s nominee to head the Department of Justice (DOJ) tax division, an
executive branch insider told The Daily Caller.
Grassley made it more difficult for the IRS and DOJ to work together
to target conservative groups by blocking Obama’s political appointee
Mary L. Smith from taking over the DOJ Tax Division, which prosecutes
criminal cases for the IRS. Grassley held up the nomination in early
2010, just as Lerner and fellow IRS officials were mapping out their
targeting strategy. The White House later withdrew Smith’s nomination.
The source confirmed to The Daily Caller that the White House and IRS
officials “were very upset at Senator Grassley and Republicans for
blocking a vote on Mary Smith’s nomination.”
The IRS relies on the DOJ Tax Division to prosecute both criminal and
civil cases, and has entire legal teams devoted to making DOJ
referrals. Placing a political appointee as assistant attorney general
for the DOJ Tax Division was a top priority for the Obama White House.
Grassley made sure that no Obama political nominee got confirmed for
the post, and kept in a “career,” or non-political, DOJ tax head for
another two years.Keep on reading…